Typhoon Haiyan kills more than 100 in Philippines city
Victims' bodies lay in the streets of the city, Tacloban, one of the hardest hit by the storm, Capt. John Andrews, the authority's deputy director general, told The Associated Press.
Although the storm had knocked out power and most communications, Captain Andrews said, his staff relayed news of the deaths. "The information is reliable," he told the news service.
Haiyan, experts say, is the one of the most powerful winds ever in the world. But because it moved across the country so rapidly, it may not have killed as many people as feared. Experts say that is because it did not linger long enough to deluge the islands with rain that can cause the widespread flooding and mudslides that often lead to very high death tolls. Tacloban, however, was flooded heavily, reported The New York Times.
The storm moved across the country around 40 km per hour, roughly twice as fast as Typhoon Bopha, which killed more than a thousand people last year, experts said.
Still, as rescuers make their way to isolated areas and communications are restored, the death toll could rise significantly. Damage was expected to be extensive, in part because many structures in poorer regions are not well built.
The typhoon slammed into the island of Samar, on the eastern edge of the Philippines, early Friday morning and sped across the islands in the center of the country. Photos showed crumpled wooden buildings, high waves slamming into the shore and, in some cases, people emerging from their houses to find coconuts strewn all over the streets.
There were grave concerns before the storm hit because the estimated wind speeds over the ocean indicated that it could have a devastating impact on land.
More than 700,000 people evacuated their homes
The alarm may have been advantageous. More than 700,000 people evacuated their homes, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Many were housed in evacuation centers, which could limit the death toll.
"People were prepared for this one," said Rene Paciente, a forecaster with the Philippine government's national weather agency. "They were given notice, and they were evacuated."
In a nationally televised address, President Benigno S. Aquino III had told Filipinos to prepare for the worst. "Let us evacuate our homes if we are in danger zones," he said.
Local
radio
and
television
stations
reported
downed
power
lines,
impassible
roads
and
flooding
in
some
areas
caused
by
surging
ocean
water.
Before
the
typhoon
made
landfall,
some
international
forecasters
were
estimating
wind
speeds
at
195
m.p.h.,
which
would
have
meant
the
storm
would
hit
with
winds
among
the
strongest
recorded.
But
local
forecasters
later
disputed
those
estimates.
"Some
of
the
reports
of
wind
speeds
were
exaggerated,"
Mr.
Paciente
said.
The Philippine weather agency measured winds on the eastern edge of the country at about 150 m.p.h., he said, with some tracking stations recording speeds as low as 100 m.p.h.
The United States Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center used satellite analysis to estimate sustained winds at 195 m.p.h., with gusts up to 235 m.p.h., but that measured the center of the storm when it was over the ocean.
"As
far
as
satellite
imagery
was
concerned,
it
indicated
that
this
was
one
of
the
strongest
storms
on
record,"
said
Roger
Edson,
the
science
and
operations
officer
at
the
United
States
National
Weather
Service
in
Guam.
He
said
195
m.p.h.
winds
would
put
the
storm
"off
the
charts,"
but
he
acknowledged
that
satellite
estimates
require
further
study
on
the
ground
to
determine
if
they
were
accurate.
By Saturday, the storm had left the Philippines, on a path to Vietnam, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Honolulu.
OneIndia News
(With agency inputs)